Posts Tagged ‘budget’
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MPPs Acknowledge Ontario Public Universities Require Additional Funding
Friday, November 15th, 2024
OCUFA maintains that public universities rely too heavily on international student tuitions, due to decades of underfunding from the provincial government… increasing provincial funding to universities by 11.75% per year for five years [would] bring Ontario in line with the Canadian average of per-student funding. Currently, Ontario’s per student funding is dead last in the country…
Tags: budget, economy, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Canada’s getting national pharmacare. Here’s what it means for you
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024
With the Liberal government’s pharmacare plan enacted earlier this month, the government only needs to sign individual deals with the provinces to realize widespread access to diabetes medication, like insulin, and a broad array of contraceptives… “informal” talks have already been ongoing… Ottawa can sign deals with all provinces by next spring… Ontario’s government, however, is still mulling over the fine print of the program.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario taxpayers fork over $4.3 million to settle legal costs in Bill 124 cases
Wednesday, October 16th, 2024
In a 2-1 decision earlier this year, the Appeal Court struck down the law, saying it infringed on workers’ Charter rights. The province accepted defeat and, soon after, repealed the law in its entirety… The province has so far paid out $6.7 billion for retroactive pay increases to broader public-sector workers after the law was struck down. Taxpayers would have been on the hook for those salary bumps either way, but the additional legal costs were a waste of money, leaders of the opposition parties said.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
There are Better Ways to Spend $3 Billion on Seniors than Boosting OAS
Monday, October 7th, 2024
If $3 billion per year were spent on seniors, where would it be best spent: Income security, supports, services or residential and nursing care? And if income security turns out to be the answer to that question, then why via OAS, which is paid to 7 million Canadian seniors? Should it not instead be the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), which is targeted towards to Canada’s 2.2 million lowest income seniors almost all of whom really do struggle to make ends meet?
Tags: budget, economy, poverty, Seniors
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Fully Indexing Ontario Social Assistance is Long Overdue
Monday, October 7th, 2024
October 1 was the six-year anniversary of the last inflation adjustment for Ontario’s social assistance payments. Their real value has steadily eroded ever since, made worse by inflation’s recent return… The lack of indexation of Ontario social assistance benefit levels has eroded the value of these benefits significantly and contributed to rising homelessness, hunger, and demand for social and health services. It is time to introduce a more economically efficient and fairer way of adjusting these benefits on a regular basis.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
… How Ontario is failing kids who are ‘too complex’ for care
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
Last-resort placements are painting a picture of a situation where Ontario’s most vulnerable children are the least likely to get help… The costs of these emergency placements can range upward from $200,000 annually per child… Often, the children are getting no treatment… Increasingly, child welfare leaders say unlicensed spaces are being used as last-resort measures because there are no treatment or residential placement options for these children
Tags: budget, child care, mental Health, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ford’s bungling of Ontario’s nursing shortage is aimed at undermining public health care
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
… staff shortages and long wait-lists in Ontario are problems that were greatly exacerbated by Ford’s mishandling of the nursing crisis. Could it be that the dissatisfaction with our health-care system may be best solved — not by introducing a lot of private, profit-making clinics — but simply by paying nurses good wages within the public system?
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Senate holding up Pharmacare Act
Monday, September 16th, 2024
… the Health Minister’s and the House Leader’s offices told Canadian Health Coalition representatives they expected the Senate to pass the Pharmacare Act before the summer. The Minister said he had several provinces ready to enter into agreements soon thereafter… But the Senate had different ideas… Now there are indications the Senate SOCI committee is entertaining amendments to Bill C-64… pharmaceutical and insurance corporations have lobbied furiously to derail Bill C-64, or delay it as long as possible.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Six key takeaways from Welfare in Canada, 2023
Monday, September 16th, 2024
Total welfare incomes were deeply inadequate across Canada in 2023. Increases to social assistance benefits between 2018 and 2023 were uneven across jurisdictions. Very few jurisdictions have indexed benefits and tax credits to inflation as of 2023… Provinces and territories should invest in higher social assistance benefits and tax-delivered income supports. Governments at all levels should index all social assistance benefits and tax-delivered benefits or credits to inflation where they don’t already do so.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Why teachers like me are dreading the return to school
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024
… 30 per cent of Ontario teachers leave the vocation in the first five years as educators. Ontario educators are leaving teaching behind as severe provincial spending cuts, the strain of COVID and a drastic rise in student violence have created an education crisis in Ontario… The provincial government began slashing funding to education in 2019. This resulted in multibillion dollar budget shortfalls for Ontario boards… A 2023-2024 survey reported a 24 per cent shortage of teaching staff in elementary schools, and a 35 per cent teaching shortage in secondary schools.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | 4 Comments »